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Glecaprevir-Pibrentasvir for Hepatitis C Infections

Before discussing one of the newest therapies for Hepatitis C, I wanted to give a shout out to Barbara McElhanon who along with Joanna Lomas-Mevers provided a quick update to our group on their important research to improve the management of encopresis in children with autism spectrum disorders.

However, it is only in this past two weeks that some of the data from two large randomized, open-label, multicenter trials have been published: Z Zeuzem et al. NEJM 2018; 378: 354-69. In total, 1208 patients were treated in the “ENDURANCE-1” and “ENDRUANCE-3” trials.

Key findings:

For genotype 1-infected patients, glecaprevir-pibrentasvir resulted in a sustained virologic response rate (at week 12) of 99.1% in the 8-week group and 99.7% in the 12-week group.

For genotype 3, glecaprevir-pibrentasvir resulted in a sustained virologic response rate (at week 12) of 95% with both 8-week and 12-week treatment. A comparison group of sofosbuvir-daclatasvir (12 week treatment) resulted in a sustained virologic response rate (at week 12) of 97%.

Serious adverse events were rare. There were three patients who died during the post-treatment period: two from heroin overdoses and one from ethanol intoxication/methadone toxicity. Headache and fatigue were the most common reported adverse events.

There were no relapses among HCV-1-infected patients who were treated for 8 weeks

In addition to these studies, “recent phase 3 trials have shown that an 8-week regimen of glecaprevir-pibrentasvir in patients without cirrhosis” yielded response of 98% for genotype 2 and 93% for genotypes 4, 5, and 6.

My take: These studies indicate that glecaprevir-pibrentasvir is an effective 8-week therapy for patients with HCV infection. Despite this terrific advance, unless we find a way to address the opioid crisis which is triggering an HCV epidemic, I am not optimistic that there will be an improvement in the number of individuals with HCV infection.